10:14 PM, March 4, 2013

Tuskegee Airman Jesse Rutledge of Detroit attends a reception at the Library of Congress in Washington, on Thursday, March 29, 2007, after the airmen were awarded the Congressional Gold Medal. / Gannett News Service, Heather Wines

Prosecutor’s Office officials said the teens were arrested Sunday and have been charged as juveniles. They had a preliminary hearing Monday at the Wayne County juvenile detention center. Maria Miller, spokeswoman for the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office, said the 15-year-old alleged gunman received a $75,000 bond. The other teens each received a $50,000 bond.

A pretrial hearing has been scheduled for March 20 at the Lincoln Hall of Justice.

Rutledge was a member of the Tuskegee Airmen, a group of African-Americans who served various roles in the Army Air Corps during World War II. Rutledge said he was drafted into the military at age 18. He served as a gunner on a B25 bomber over Japan.

Rutledge said he later moved to Detroit and eventually ran various businesses, including a laundromat, shoe repair shop and ice cream parlor, in the area of the barbershop he visited Saturday.

Rutledge said when he was slow to retrieve his car keys from his pocket, the gunman racked the gun and called him a racial epitaph.

“I’ve heard that too many times,” Rutledge said of the slur, explaining that he faced racial discrimination while growing up in Alabama and in the military.

Rutledge said the gunman “jumped in that car and took off like he owned it,” along with the other teens. Rutledge called police from the barbershop. He said he was glad he wasn’t hurt.

“It looks like their dad and momma should be charged. … They’re teenagers,” Rutledge said. “They just need teaching or something. If they keep going like this, someone is going to get killed, or they’re going to get killed.”